Pride and Prejudice: Canada's international legacy

Defining Moments in Canada

Canada is a vast country, with amazing geography, culture and most importantly history. Canada's history is something to very interesting compared to other histories. Our history has tons of events that has made Canada what it has become today. In the many different times in Canadian history, its events in the 20th century were the building blocks to what Canada has become today. Their many events that have made Canada what it has become today like the Vimy Ridge battle, the universal healthcare, the creation of the Charter Rights and Freedoms, the internment of Japanese Canadians, the Kogmagata Maru incident, and the separatist movement in Quebec. These are 6 crucial events/moments in Canadian history that has left some impressions on Canada today, all of which are bad or good.

Canada's military involvement at Vimy Ridge was a huge moment in Canadian history. Vimy Ridge was highly fortified, which the Germans controlled, which, with countless attempts, the French and English had Failed terribly at getting control of from the Germans. On the 9th of April 1917 at 5:30 am the Canadians attacked together for the first time with the four Canadian divisions storming the ridge. More than 15.000 Canadian infantry overran the Germans all along the front. After the attempt of our Canadian soldier we were finally able to gain control of the ridge from the Germans. This event brought a lot of attention towards Canada who was able to do something two huge armed countries failed many times. This gave our Canadian military much respect and showed them as a strong force. Also showing that we have loads of potential and much to prove to others. With the win of this event many people said that this was the "birth of a nation". As their were many deaths of people during the Battle of the Vimy Ridge a memorial statue was build in honor of those who fought in the Vimy Ridge.

As their were many events that made Canada what it is today i feel that the creation of Universal healthcare created by Tommy Douglas. Universal healthcare would mean healthcare for all the citizens of Canadian from the poor to rich. Tommy Douglas was one man with many others to fight for Universal Healthcare. He got into politics and became in involved with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a party that was looking for social reform and Universal Healthcare. Many people disagreed with what he said and called the group a dangerous group of communists. He started small by getting Saskatchewan universal healthcare but he didn't stop their. He continued on and went from one province to another and finally got all the provinces to have universal healthcare. This event has brought Canada a amazing reputation for wanting to take care of it's people. This has also brought many Canadians together and has saved many lives. This also affected Canadian history by showing that we don't just care about the rich but the poor. Image showing that Canadian Health care works.

Another brighter significant and proud moment in Canada's history is the creation of the Charter Rights and Freedoms on 1982. A major advocate of this was Prime Minister Trudeau. Trudeau fought for Canada's Constitution and he finally was able to win and bring Canada's Constitution home. He not only brought that home with him but with it, a new Canadian Charter Rights and Freedoms. This new Charter Rights and Freedoms sought to protect individual rights by preventing laws that unfairly discriminate or take away human rights. This event/moment brought Canada much respect from all around the world till this date. The Charter Rights and Freedoms made it so women were able to vote, Gays and lesbians to be accepted, gave us our voices back with the freedom of speech and many more. This event not only made Canada a better place but made it a place where people could go if their country didn't accept them. Image below of our Human Rights.

As their are many good and proud moments in Canadian history their are some that are shameful and sad like the internment of Japanese Canadians. This event was sparked when news of the attack on the American naval base at Hawaii on December 7, 194, years of smoldering fear and resentment against Japanese Canadians exploded into panic and anger in British Columbia. At the time there were about 22,000 Japenese Canadians in British Columbia, some desendants of the first immigrants who sought work in Canada in the late 1800'2. Thanks to that one attack in Hawaii the War Act Measure was enacted and many Japanese people were taken away from the main areas to a "protected area". This happened thanks to a war that was declared on December 8th 1941. The things that happened to this people was unnecessary and absurd. That had their rights striped away from them. This event affect Canadian history to being one of the most shameful events because of the the things done to the Japanese which led some Japanese hating Canada. This event is something the Canadians learned off of which in the end still doesn't change anything. This image below shows the "Camps" the people had to live in and was the area the Japanese were detained.

In addition to the shameful event to the Japanese Canadians their is another event that is shameful to our Canadian history which is the Kogmagata Maru incident. This happened in 1914. A Japanese steamship the Kogmagata Maru, that sailed from Hong Kong, Shanghai, China to Yokohama, Japan and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The ship carrying 375 passengers from Punjab, India, of them 24 were admitted to Canada, but the 352 other passengers were not allowed to land in Canada, and he ship was forced to return to India. The Passengers consisted of 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus, all British subjects. They passengers that were sent back were arrested and lock up for being "potential danger". Here are the people boarding the boat to Canada.

This last event is the most disgraceful and shameful event ever in the Canadian history to this date. This was the separatist movement in Quebec. This was very disgraceful for Canada because never in our history did we experience a more disgraceful inner hatred towards our own country. During this experience many lives were lost but the very tragic deaths was the deaths of of Quebec’s Minister of Labour and Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte and British civil servant James Cross, they died due to the severe and terrible decisions of an extremist separatist group called the FLQ which killed these two fine men because their ransoms weren't met quick enough. These deaths lead to more inner chaos and conflict in Canada with the war measures act instated by prime minister Trudeau. and this the most disgraceful because this event showed a darker more hateful side of this amazing and most gracious country Canada. This event not only made us hate our own country but mad others not want to come anymore. This event was a shameful one because of the FLQ but thanks to many investigations the FLQ were brought to justice. The image below is of those who are apart of the FLQ and the murders of two fine man who are Pierre Laporte and James Cross.

Canada's actions throughout the 20th century were no doubt the important roles, in the Canadian history, and it's foundation. Canada proved it's force and strength at the Vimy Ridge, made bad choices that left scars on the Canadian Japanese people, the Kogmata Maru Incident that left many in custody, the separatist movement, the universal healthcare, and the creation of the new Charter Rights and Freedoms. These six events/moments were what made Canada what it is today which is a beautiful and nice country. Even with the many mistakes we made we made up most of the them we more events that made us proud of what we do. Canada is one of the best countries and we should be proud of all the things that we have done to make it one and embrace the victories that others couldn't reach but we could and also learn from the many scars we left behind to never make those mistakes again.